It is known from the literature (e.g. Allgemeine und spezielle Pharmakologie und Toxikologie ["General and special Pharmacology and Toxicology"], edited by W. Forth, D. Henschler et al., 5th edition, B1 Wissenschaftsverlag, Mannheim, 1987, page 389 ff.) that heme iron is suitable for the fortification of various materials by iron. In contrast to the iron that is contained in food, the advantage of heme iron can be seen in the feature that the iron in food is present predominantly as non-heme iron, whose availability is reduced by plant-based nutritive ligands (phytates, oxalates, tannin, etc.). Heme iron is not subject to these resorption restrictions and, moreover, it irritates the intestinal mucous membrane considerably less in high doses and it is tolerated better as a result.
However, no processes have become known so far from the literature by means of which hemin preparations can be manufactured with a correspondingly high concentration of globin. It has merely become known from the article by K. Schumann and A. Maurer et al. in Ital. J. Gastroenterol. 27, 167, 1995, namely "Intestinal transfer of different hemin preparations in vitro", that heme iron is suitable for fortification by means of iron and that it can be prepared by acid hydrolysis.
Proceeding on the basis of this, the problem for the present invention is to propose a process for obtaining heme iron which is suitable for fortification by means of iron, whereby the hemin preparation that has been manufactured is required to contain a high concentration of globin (protein).
The problem is solved by the characterizing features of patent claim 1. The subsidiary claims indicate further advantageous embodiments.